ted lyddon hatten

encaustic art

There are oak trees inside acorns,

and there are acorns inside oak trees.

All the way down,

it’s acorn, oak, acorn, oak.

See for yourself.

tlh

[These carvings come from a branch (pictured) that fell from a tree (also pictured) which produced the pictured acorn.]

BIRD CHESS

Bird chess is an infinite game.

It is played for the

purpose of continuing play.

International chess is

a finite game with intricate rules.

The objective of the game is to win,

to emerge victorious from the battlefield.

Bird chess has one rule:

Turns must alternate.

By consensus among the players, other rules may be added,

amended, or erased.

Bird chess has no board, no boundaries, no clock.

There are no requirements or limitations

on what constitutes a turn.

It can be played anywhere,

anytime,

by any number of players.

The game may be paused at anytime.

To watch is to participate, thus there are no spectators.

Simultaneous games may be merged,

larger games may be cleaved

into smaller ones.

The object of the game is to keep the game going,

indefinitely.

Welcome to bird chess.

Ted Lyddon Hatten

2019

Epiphany

An homage to Balthazar, the most exotic part of the nativity set I knew as a child. His skin was the color of chocolate and he carried a tiny treasure chest of myrrh, a costly burial spice. While the other figurines stood, Balthazar took a knee. Legend has it that he and his traveling companions were kings, a telling mistranslation of the word magi. Heads of state bowing before the King of Kings is one way to tell the story, but when magicians, sorcerers, and heretics, (the accepted translation of the word magi) show up, the story turns. Outsiders see the cosmic significance of the coming upheaval. By the light of the star it becomes clear that the birth of a new world will threaten the old one. The silence and the safety of the diorama has been disrupted. All is not calm. Herod will soon slaughter all of the swaddled innocents.

Epiphany is an edgy story, the Magi come from the edges of the known world, the margins of society. They came shrouded in mystery, knowing the secrets, and seeing the future.

According to legend, Balthazar was in his twenties, a young Black man from Ethiopia. Several worlds away from my white, suburban, middle-class American living room. But there he was, 3402 Linda Lane, kneeling in the margins of our manger offering a burial spice to a newborn, covering the funeral costs for what he knew would be an untimely death.

Jesus was not the only brown-skinned baby Balthazar would visit that night or in the centuries since. There were other stars to follow and funerals to foretell. There is still an order to disrupt, a story to turn, and myrrh to deliver to the margins of the world.

TLH

2022

sand art

myrrh art

coffee grounds art

ephemeral mosaic art

This Too Shall Pass

ephemeral art, frass on glass

(12in x12in x8in / 30.48cm x30.48cm x20.32cm)

In the spirit of “imigongo”, a popular art form in Rwanda traditionally made by women using cow dung, I offer this visual reflection on the shitty year that was 2022.